Fall Planted Bulbs for a Spring Bloom

 Discover the beauty and anticipation of spring gardening in the new podcast episode, Fall Planted Bulbs for a Spring Bloom, hosted by UC Master Gardeners Marilyn Johnson and Teena Spindler. This delightful episode explores how bulbs produce some of the garden’s most beautiful blooms and why planting times vary across different parts of the world. Listeners will learn that in California, fall is the ideal time to plant bulbs for a vibrant and joyous spring display. Tune in for expert gardening tips and inspiration to bring color and life to your garden. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to In the Garden with the University of California Master Gardeners. I'm a Master Gardener. My name is Marilyn Johnson, and today we're going to talk with Tita Spindler, a fellow Master Gardener and a horticultural educator in Orange County. So today we're going to talk about spring flowers that we have to plant in the fall. How does that make sense? So today we're going to get some further information from Tina. So welcome Tina.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Thank you so much. We're actually talking about my very favorite gardening topic because the spring flowers we're going to talk about specifically are bulbs or a broad class of perennials that we call bulbs. And they're actually the flower that got me hooked on gardening. I planted some in my 20s and I've been hooked ever since.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Very nice. So what are your favorites?

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Well, you have to understand when you are in Southern California that what may be what you think are the favorite bulbs that you might see in the cut flower industry, tulips come to mind. Those are not my favorite bulbs to plant here in Southern California. And that's because tulips require winter chill, which we don't get, at least in Southern California. And so although I planted tulips once when in my early gardening days, and in our conversation before we started the show, I heard you planted them once also. Yes. And uh and our experiences were pretty similar, I think. It's a lot of work for not much result. Right. What happened to you?

SPEAKER_02 1:41

The payoff just wasn't there. I watched those bulbs for I don't know, it seemed like weeks to get the little shoots coming up, and then the flowers were there, it was beautiful, and then they were gone. And I just thought there's there's got to be um something that has a little more payoff.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Yes, I actually I couldn't agree more. Um, but that's not to say that if you are devoted to tulips and they're your favorite you know flower of all time, that you shouldn't try them. Um you just have to be aware that they do need to be pre-chilled for about six weeks before you can plant them out in the yard or in pots. And also, if you are gonna do it, I would recommend planting them in pots because they are short-lived, and so you really want them to be front and center somewhere. So when they do bloom, you want to be able to move that pot, you know, on your very front doorstep or right out your back door so that you can see them all the time.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

So, what is pre-chill? Do you put them in the fridge? Do you put them in the freezer?

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Good question. You don't want to freeze them, but what you want to do is put them, think of your produce drawer in your refrigerator. So you want to put them in a plot, not in a plastic bag, in a paper bag, because in plastic the humidity can cause them to rot. So put them in a paper bag, put it in that drawer, and then chill them. Just let it sit in your fridge. Um make sure that you don't have, I know when I was first married, I had a refrigerator that would freeze the lettuce, you know, because the lettuce drawer is too cold. So make sure you don't put them in that drawer. But if you have a drawer that, you know, operates appropriately, that's where you want to leave them. One caveat is you don't want to store apples uh in the same refrigerator with them because they emit uh gas and ethylene gas that can cause them to um try to sprout and and otherwise interfere with their um chilling process. So uh no apples in the fridge if you're gonna do put them in the bar fridge or leave buy two at a time and leave them on the counter or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Can you over overextend that chill time?

SPEAKER_01 3:50

That's a good question. I think if it's a short bit, you know, like a couple of weeks, um, it wouldn't it wouldn't matter, but you wouldn't want to chill them for six months. Okay, I don't know that they would be viable if you overextended that period. And the flower bulbs are they're not cheap, you know, they're they're fairly expensive, so you don't want to waste your investment. So go ahead and pre-chill them. Another bulb that likes that is hyacinth. Um, so uh when you're gonna get a lot of information in this show, but if you end up trying to plant something we haven't talked about, just you know, Google it and make sure that you're doing the right uh process in order to have the best success.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Well, you mentioned hyacinth, and I know there's other flowers too that we kind of generalize and say bulb flowers, but they're act they actually have a different name to their starting points.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yes, they're what you're talking about, I think, is is the structure, the physical structure of what we call the bulb. So uh one bulb we're all familiar with, which is a true bulb, is an onion, right? So an onion is what's called a true bulb. And um the other types of plants um we'll talk about that are called bulbs, uh, are they all of these, all of these bulbs, what they have in common is that they're perennials, right? So a perennial means a plant lasts more than one year, more than one season. Um but bulbs are a specific group of perennials that store their food in a big physical location. And so think of an onion, right? That onion, which is a bulb, that's food that's stored for the plant to grow again next year if we were to leave it in the ground. Um, so but not all of them are what are called true bulbs. Some of the other ones are what are called corms, and so they don't have that round look that true bulbs do. Rhizomes, which means kind of a fleshy root, tubers also kind of a fleshy root, and then what we call tuberous roots, also a fleshy root. Oh, okay. So let's talk about each of them briefly so that we understand what the difference is. Great. So a true bulb has uh a short underground stem. So if you look at the top of an onion, and you know if you leave it too long in your drawer or your pantry, right, it'll start growing out of that top, what we've considered the top of the onion bulb. Um, and so inside of that onion is where that stem, you know, commences. So it has a short underground stem. And then it has some fleshy leaves, and then it also has what's called a solid basal plate. So if you turn your onion upside down, right, you can see that there's kind of this circular place where the roots were, right? That's called the basal plate. Um, and then also were you to leave a true bulb in the ground, uh, they will often form what are called bulblets around the edges. And um, so if you if you dig up a daffodil, for instance, you'll see these little mini bulbs clustered around the sides.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Um, so that's what a true bulb is. Uh, some examples of true bulbs are are um allium giganteum, and I don't know if you've ever seen those, like a botanical garden, but they they grow on these uh stems that are a couple feet tall, and then they get these heads, these round circular heads that are probably six to eight inches across, often in purple, and they're just they're just stunning. Um and then amarylus, the belladonna lily. If you've ever seen that, that comes, if you've ever been to like out in the country and you see an old estate, and they're called naked ladies, is their common name because you see this stick, this stem that comes up and has this beautiful pink, you know, lily on the on the top of it, and but there's no leaves, and so they're called naked ladies. Yeah. Um and so a naked lady is is a true bulb if you've ever seen those. The one we're most the ones we're most familiar with would be tulips, tulips are true bulbs, and then the other one uh would be the daffodil family, which includes Narcissus and Paper Whites, if you've ever done the paper white thing, you know, over the holidays where you try to force them inside or you buy them.

SPEAKER_02 8:39

Yes, you can buy those for the holidays. It seems real popular. And the amaryllis.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

And and but that's a different kind of amaryllis. But you're oh, is it? Yeah, the Belladonna amarylus is is a is a different amaryllis than the one you're talking about, which which we'll also talk about. Um so those are examples of the true bulbs, and the ones we're gonna focus on mostly today um will be the daffodil family, because those do really well in Southern California. But um, before we do that, I want to finish talking about what the other types of bulb. Oh, and and the and and I almost forgot one of my favorite true bulbs is Dutch iris. And you see that often if you order uh bouquets from you know the florist, uh especially in the springtime. Uh the Dutch iris are often apart and they're just stunning. The blue purple. The blue purple ones, yeah. Very, very almost. And the reason I love the bulb flowers and why I got so hooked is think about it, all the flowers that come from these bulbs, they look fake, right? They almost look plastic. And so uh that's I think why I'm enamored of them, is they just are so perfect.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

Do you look? Do you use them for cut flowers? Oh, all the time.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

And they last well, they last, it you know, it depends on the bulb, it depends on the stage at which you cut it, right? So Dutch Iris, for instance, you cut those when they're still in a bud form because they will unfurl when you bring them in the house. So I like to get every last hour out of them. So I usually cut them before they're actually in full bloom, and then by the next day. Um, but yeah, I in fact I cut most of mine because where do we spend the most of our time? In the house. So when they're in bloom, man, the house is full of flowers.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Oh, I bet it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

I just love them. Um, and then there'll be some other tubulbs we'll talk about as well. That um because the other the other thing I want to talk about when we after we get through what types of structures of these plants there are, is I want to talk about naturalizing. And that means what can I plant that's gonna come back, that's gonna naturalize in my garden, because the older I get, the lazier I get, and the more I want things to come back on their own. So we'll talk about that as well. But the next structure, bulb structure that we're gonna talk about is a corm. And a corm has a swollen underground uh base stem. It looks like a bulb in that it's um kind of you know fat and thick, um, but it's flatter, it's not as you know, round shape as a bulb. So think of like an onion that you squished, you know, so that's it's just a little bit flatter. Uh it too though has a basal plate, and that means that on the bottom of it, you know, there's that round circle, and that's where the roots come, is that basal plate. That bulb itself, the the corm that you plant only lasts one year, but it does the most amazing thing. It creates a new corm on top of the old one. So it's the old one will get real flat and look, you know, like I don't know, like somebody stepped on it. But sitting on top of that flat thing is gonna be this nice new full corn. Gladiolas are the ones that you're probably most familiar with.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

So you can just keep it in the ground.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

You don't have to worry about you can keep it in the ground where where we live, they do naturalize. Um, but uh it is also, particularly if you have, you know, limited space like we do here, uh, and you want to plant other flowers there when it's done blooming, what you can do is dig them up and just twist off that flattened old corn and throw it away, and then keep the new one. And you just put them in a paper bag and store them in a cool place until they're ready to plant the next year. So the actual original corn only lasts one year, but it produces a new one right on top of it. And then also what'll happen as on um, like some of the daffodils, is those uh new little uh bulb uh type structures will form around the edges, but on a corn, they're called uh cormlets, so they just have a different name. That makes sense. Yeah, so as I said, the most uh common one that we're familiar with would be gladiola. They they are from corms, uh, but also uh crocosmias, crocus, uh another thing that needs chewing, by the way. Um freezas, one of my favorites. We're gonna talk a lot about friegias, those are also corms. Um uh a lot of South African natives, ixia, Watsonia, those are all corms. Now let's go to the next one. Rhizomes. So the next term is rhizomes.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

And a rhizome is a thickened stem. So not a separate structure like a bulb, but just a thicker part of the stem, which is growing under the ground. The one that folks would be most familiar with would be bearded iris, right? And so that's what you're actually seeing, the little leaves come out of, is a thickened stem that is only slightly underground, right? If you look at bearded iris, you can almost see the rhizome, right? They're they're very close to the surface. They don't have a basal plate, that circle y thing at the bottom of a bowl. Don't have those. Their roots generally grow from the underside of that thickened um stem. Um, yeah, so that's that's rhizomes.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

So there's two different irises. There's probably a lot of varieties, but good point.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yes, absolutely. So bearded iris is a rhizome, and bearded iris um grow, the green part grows here year-round. So you're always gonna see those sword-shaped leaves. The Dutch iris, which is a true bulb, its foliage will completely die back. So you're not gonna see it at all once it's done blooming. It's then you leave its foliage for a couple of months until it naturally dies back. Um, so yes, you're right. They're both called iris, but they're completely different, you know, types of plants.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

Okay, good to know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Uh, another one people are probably familiar with, uh, in addition to bearded iris that are rhizomes, is Austromeria, right? Great plant. You can get those, you know, at the supermarket in big bunches. One of my favorites to buy uh when I don't have them, is and it's because Austromeria can last 10 days or more in a vase. So Austromeria is a fabulous cut flower. So I I have a lot of Austromeria in my in my garden, and it too is is uh rhizome.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

I was really surprised to read that it was a bulbflower because it just seems so common, and I think of bulbflowers as being exotic and high maintenance, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Yeah, and and in other places, um ulstromeria is somewhat rare because uh they they don't do well in freezing climates, right? So we're lucky to be in Southern California because we can enjoy these these plants. But the rhizomes of the Ulstromeria, if you've ever grown them, they're very delicate. Um, they break super easy, they they almost look like um water-filled roots. You know, they have so much moisture in their rhizome, whereas the bearded iris rhizome looks kind of hard and woody. Um, so uh you might not realize that they're both rhizomous plants, but they are. Calilily, um super bulletproof. Do you grow any of those?

SPEAKER_02 16:58

You know, I have. I've always wanted to grow the oriental lilies, the Stargazer, because of the scent. It's just beautiful. Now, is that's a bulbflower?

SPEAKER_01 17:07

That that is considered a bulb. Um, it's it's a called an Asiatic lily as opposed to the calal lily. The cala lily we often think of as the funeral lily. Yes, you know, that one, yeah. Which grows, I mean, they're all over my yard and they they spread and and I like them now at this age because they're bulletproof. And I and their bloom season isn't huge, it's mostly in the springtime. But man, when they're blooming, they make beautiful cut flowers. You know, you get half a dozen of those in a tall vase because they have really long stands. It's quite the quite the centerpiece.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Do you know if those are toxic to animals?

SPEAKER_01 17:47

I don't know that. I'd have to look that up.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

I you think they are kind of think they are because yeah, it's something that I was alerted to when we had, you know, pets in the yard.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Um yeah, always before you plant any of these things, you know, double check that if you have pets that like to dig on chew on chew on things. Um I I don't have pets currently, so I have not been uh worried about that. But callal lilies um also are a rhizome. Um canalilies, uh and you know, those get very tall, you know, taller than me. They're over five feet tall, very tropical looking. Uh, we don't really plant them in this time of year, so we're not going to talk about them. Okay. Um, but know that they are also a rhizome. Uh, then we'll move on to tubers, and tubers are also swollen underground stems, but they don't have a basal plate. Uh, their roots grow from all over. Um, and it's radio, so you can't see me, but my hands are making a circle all around. And so instead of the roots just growing from a basal plate at the bottom, they grow all over the tuber. Um, the examples of those would be anemone. Um, I don't know if if folks, there's a couple different kinds of anemone too. So this would be anemone coronaria decane, and I'm not even sure I'm saying it right. Um, but you plant those now. They come in beautiful colors of red and pink and purple and even blue. So I always try to order the blue ones because it's so hard to find, you know, blue flowers.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

So I love those, they're super, super easy to grow. Uh, tuberous begonias are tubers, that's why they're called tuberous begonias. Um, those uh I only plant in pots personally. Um it to put them in the ground, uh, I've not had good luck putting those in the ground. So I would only do those in pots. Um and then also caladium and cyclomin, those are tubers. And then uh tuberous roots, this will be the last category, and then we can go to the fun stuff and start talking about the actual plants. And tuberous roots are they're actual roots, but they grow in clusters, and the growth buds for the new growth are at the base of the old stems. And uh the one of the ones that we're probably most familiar with would be dahlias. And so if you've ever looked at dahlias, uh the roots are thick, so they kind of look like tubers, and um, and then the buds, the new growth of the new stems are at the very top. So uh in addition to dahlias, daylilies are also tuberous roots, and then my very favorite flower, which I'm gonna talk to you about because you have some experience I don't have, and that's renunculus. So rununculus are also tuberous roots, and when you look at a ranunculus bulb, shall we say, since we are using that term generally, uh, it has what looked like fingers that are pointing down, but those are actually the tuberous roots, and uh it it grows, in my opinion, the most beautiful flowers. Each flower has what? You probably I mean, did they give you a pebble count? Do they have like a hundred pebbles on them?

SPEAKER_02 21:19

It's I don't have a petal count, but that was one of the criteria that we were doing research for. I was able to go down as a master gardener down to the flower fields in Carlsbad and help them with their research during their season.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

So amazing.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

We were invited to do that, which was wonderful. And so we actually went out into the flower fields. There's a research area, fields specifically for us to do this, and we would look at the length of the stem, the the petals. Um if there is multiple multiple flowers coming off a stem or single or whatever, these beautiful rows and rows of these. Flowers, but they're not grown for the flowers. They're grown for the corms. Quorms, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:06

Or not corms, tuberous roots. Oh. Tuberous roots, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:10

And so, yes, we would go and flag them, put a flag down near the roots. So, what happens is when the flowers have done their thing, they will come, they will come out and shave all the flowers. They're just all gone. But they don't shave them low enough to where they would get the flag that we have put down into the soil. So then that's where they know those are the root base, and you said chromes, correct?

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Um, well, you can I I've called them corms because corm is a term that anything that's not a specific round bulb, I just use the term corn kind of in general, but technically they're called a tuberous root.

SPEAKER_02 22:53

Okay, the tuberous root. Yeah. And so then they would harvest the tuberous root and then process that and then plant that the next year. And this is a process that keeps on going season after season is to make these tuberous roots. Yeah, it is, right? So it was just wonderful. But yes, we look at all that, but the the tighter the petals and the more of them, the better. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

They're they're spectacular. I I can't um encourage people enough to give them a try because they uh if you know what a peony looks like, they kind of look like a peony if you're familiar with those from Back East, uh, because they just have that really full multipetal, puffy and and the colors, oh my gosh, what colors were you looking at down there?

SPEAKER_02 23:45

Oh gosh, well there were certain areas there was the pinks, but it was like, well, what color pink was it? So we had the little PMS color charts to go by to identify them. Is it orange? Is it this color orange? Is it more of a yellow orange? And so sometimes we're looking for just very specific colors. We were looking at um multicolored flowers also.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

I think they call do they call those picotea? Yes, where they have the little um main one color, and then there's an edging of like a second color, or just kind of a veins through it all.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

It was just beautiful. So you'd get red and yellow together, or they had one called, I think cappuccino, that was like an orange and a different kind of color to it. So it's just really fascinating what they're trying to produce down there.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

Wow, I'm I'm jealous. I I would have loved to have been involved in that project. Um, I do go to the flower fields every year and encourage anybody um who's listening to do that. It's in Carl's Bad, as Marilyn said, and it is open to not the research fields, but to the bulk fields are open to the public.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

Well, you can walk down to the research fields, you can go throughout that whole property. And so when you go in, I think through almost where the nursery is located, right? You hang a left, go past the barns, and we're just in that field. You'll see us being outstanding in our field. And you know, there's you know, tape around it. Yeah. But people are very, very willing to talk to you about what they're doing, what they're looking for. People take pictures, they're not allowed in the research field itself, but it's all open, it's just wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Oh, that's cool. And I've never walked that far down. I've always stopped at the barn area, usually because I have grandkids with me. So um, but yeah, do go to the flower fields. Uh, there are acres and acres that you can walk through. It's a great place to take photos. Uh, they even have little uh spots for you to take photos because you have just these hills of color behind you. It's magnificent. And then they also have um other gardens uh in front of the fields, kind of at the entryway where you can see some beautiful planted gardens, more formally planted gardens.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

When I was there a couple years ago, they were also doing research on blueberries and coffee.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Oh, wow. So that's so cool.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

Yeah, it's very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

And to give you a little orientation, it's near Legoland. Um, so uh that's that's where it is. And I think they're open. The bloom probably starts what?

SPEAKER_02 26:25

March? I think March, and it runs until usually May, Mother's Day.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Yeah, yeah. So it's a it's a fairly long time, March, April, May, that you have a chance to get down there. Um, but yeah, fabulous. It's in our geographic area, it's the only place I know that has a display that's that huge. Just picture uh pictures that you've seen of the Dutch tulip fields, but this is Rinoculous.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

It's breathtaking. You really don't understand the scope until you're standing among these beautiful flowers.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

Yeah, yeah. So anyway, um, so let's talk now about um a little bit more about what to plant and what my personal favorites are, what I find easy and what I find uh comes back year after year.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

Are these for beginners?

SPEAKER_01 27:19

These are for beginners. Okay. Um it's not that you can't plant other things once you look because what I did, I think, is I started with daffodils uh and they were just stunningly beautiful, and so that made me want to try every bulb I could find. Uh, and some are easier than others, and some even within the a certain category uh are more likely to come back than than others. So uh so let's let's first talk, uh following our organization from before, about the true bulbs, which is coincidentally the daffodils, which includes narcissus and paper whites. And uh you do want to plant those in the fall, and um they're pretty big bulbs, they're usually oh, an inch and a half, two inches in diameter. And so the rule about planting bulbs is you want to plant them twice as deep as they are tall. So those you would plant, you know, pretty deep, probably six inches-ish. If they're now some of the bulbs in those families are bigger than others, and so if they're a smaller bulb, then obviously you would plant them a little bit shallower. Um, the colors that they come in are yellow, white, some apricot, uh, orange colors, and some of them will have multiple flowers on a stem, the narcissist in particular, and others of the daffodils will just have that one big, you know, yellow flower with that big cup in the middle. So uh, you know, choose choose the kind you want. There are so many different varieties that it's a good idea if you want to plant them and see if they'll come back uh year to year to Google uh daffodils or narcissists that will naturalize in California, Southern California, and and it will it will, you know, you'll get you'll get a list of different ones. Now, where do you find these plants as we're talking about them? Well, you used to be able to go to pretty much any nursery, uh, even the big box retailers in September, and they would start to get their shipments in. But I've noticed over some time, several years, uh nurseries just aren't carrying as many bulbs as they used to. So uh don't be afraid to order online. They're great um companies that do mail order. Uh, and and I actually did that this year because I couldn't find um the rununculus uh anywhere. I went to you know all of our local nurseries and only one of them had them in a bag. Uh and you used to be able to just pick them out of boxes loose so that you could pick out the ones that look the best. And the one that was in a bag was a mixed variety, and and I prefer to plant single colors because I like to organize the colors in my garden. Um, now the good thing about daffodils or narcissus is that they will grow um in sun to part shade, which is kind of important uh for where we live because a lot of our houses are super close together, and um you know, we don't have as much sun, perhaps, as we would like. So that's a that's a good thing to know is that they will grow in part shade. A lot of them will uh naturalize, especially the ones that um are identified as narcissists, they're more likely to naturalize. And I would give everybody a little hint about paper whites. If you force paper whites yourself for the holidays, or if someone gives you a gift of paper whites, you know, for the holidays, do not throw those bulbs away when they're done blooming. I probably have several hundred in my garden because I plant them every year. I just find an empty spot, you know, in a corner that I know I'm not going to disturb in between shrubs or whatever, and I plant them, and sure enough, they come back and it's a present.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

So that's a great idea.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

And the paper whites, interestingly, um in Southern California, they bloom in the fall. So even though you buy them like this time of year, the nurseries will have paper whites that you can buy and you bring them home. And if you want them to bloom at Christmas, you'll plant them six weeks before the holiday, and then you'll have blooms at Christmas. But naturally, when you put them out in the garden after they've bloomed, they'll bloom uh around October.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

So in the garden. But you can grow them inside, I've seen like in a rock base. Exactly. So you don't need the soil.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

You don't even need soil to force narcissus. So you can get uh clear bowls, glass bowls, and put them with pebbles. Uh straight-sided is better than a you know, angled-sided bulb. Um, buy some, you know, either colorful or or monochromatic or even glass beads, and you just put those bulbs in there, um, not quite touching. You leave, you know, like a quarter inch in between them. You put a little bit of water up to that, what I called that basal plate where the roots come out, but you don't submerge the bowl. So you you set it in the rock so it's about halfway down, um, and then you only put the water in up to where the roots are.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

You could also place them in a like a terracotta saucer or something flat too.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

Yeah, you probably could. I haven't done that because you do want them to be anchored a little bit, because when they do get that stem and that flower, they're gonna have a tendency to want to flop over. So if it's too shallow and you don't have that bulb, you know, anchored in the pebbles or gravel or whatever you're using, um, that they're gonna tend to flop over anyway. What I usually do once they start blooming is I get um bamboo skewers and I just stick those in the pebbles, and then I tie a little um either a c a ribbon, you know, like a little green thin ribbon around four, say you put three or four skewers in around them, and then that just gives a little bit of support if they want to start flopping over.

SPEAKER_02 33:46

Kind of like for orchids.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

Yes, that people do.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

Yeah. Now the paper whites are very fragrant.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

Very fragrant.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

Yes. So you really have to like that scent too.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

You do, and it's funny. Um it's some people can't stand it, and some people I personally love it, um, but my husband's not a big fan.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

Mine too.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

Isn't that funny?

SPEAKER_02 34:08

Yeah, I had to actually remove them. It was just overwhelming. I just thought it was beautiful though.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Yeah. I I liked to put them in the bathroom because I love to have a scented flower in the bathroom.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

And that's a great idea.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

He says that's different. I moved it out into the hallway where he could just quickly walk past it. Um, but yeah, those those are great to force and also to just fill in, you know, empty spots in your garden, and they'll come back year to year. Now, if you do let um the narcissist, daffodils, paper whites naturalize, and this is true of all bulbs that you let naturalize, you will need to dig them up after three to four years. You'll be able to tell because what happens is the bulbs reproduce and they get more and more crowded. And so the bulb, instead of being that nice big, fat, you know, one and a half inch in diameter bulb, is going to get smaller and smaller because it's crowded, which means it's gonna have less energy to produce that flower. So it's recommended that you dig them up and separate the bulbs, which means you have now lots of bulbs that you can plant elsewhere. Uh, and that way you'll continue to get, you know, the the bigger flowers, um, and they'll be more prolific.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

Or you could just leave them there and see what you get.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

And that's what I've done. So, of all those couple hundred narcissists bulbs that I have planted, oh my gosh, probably half of them aren't blooming anymore because I haven't, you know, taken the time to dig them up. But the foliage still comes up, so I suspect I could dig them up, replant them, and and they would probably come back.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

So that way you know where they are too.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

Exactly. Yeah. Um, we talked about tulips, but I do not recommend tulips for here unless you want to do it just as a fun thing for a pot or two. But the other true bulb that I really do recommend for beginners is the Dutch iris. They are stunning cut flowers. Uh, when the stem grows and the flower blooms, it's probably two and a half feet tall. So beautiful for bouquets. I like to actually pair them with the callilies because they both have long stems and you get that white calalily and the blue Dutch iris.

SPEAKER_02 36:31

Oh, but that's pretty combo. But one flower per stock.

SPEAKER_01 36:35

Um interestingly, they usually get uh at least two flowers per stock, and what happens is the first flower blooms, and then this second little flower comes out alongside of it just as the first one is is done. And so that's one reason they're great for bouquets because I just come back to the bouquet and I, you know, tip off the one that's you know fading and let that second flower open up. Oh and on occasion I've actually had three, but that's not as common. Now they come not just in those pretty blue colors, um, which is my favorite, but they come in lavender, purple, yellow, and white. And then some of them come in bicolors, you know, where you've got the purple and yellow sort of combined, or blue and yellow kind of combined.

SPEAKER_02 37:21

Pretty.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Yeah. So look through your catalogs, you know, when you're gonna order. There are also uh dwarf varieties, um, but personally I never buy those because I don't want dwarf, I want the tall. Yeah, you want the bang for your buck. Yeah. Um, they do come back uh for a couple of years, but they don't um come back long term, at least in my experience. They they are um good for maybe two to three years of return, and then they just kind of fizzle out.

SPEAKER_02 37:54

How do you plant around bulbs?

SPEAKER_01 37:57

That is a uh maybe we should just talk about that right now. We'll take a break from talking about my favorite flowers. Um, I just wanted to get into something that was a little exciting rather than you know the technicalities of how to grow them, but but let's take a break and talk about that. Uh, the first thing that you need to do is uh decide where you're gonna plant them. And you can plant them in between other things, but you have to make sure that you can dig up, say it's a one foot by one foot you know, square or circle or whatever, because you do want to till the soil before you plant the bulbs. And so just do it as you would whenever you're gonna plant a new flower bed. You want to amend the soil with um some compost. Uh, doesn't need to be homemade compost, just you know, store-bought, which is usually called garden soil, but it's actually compost. So get a bag of the store-bought garden soil, dig up your um soil where you're gonna plant them, mix in uh some of the compost, and then you also want to mix in um if you want to be safe and you because you're not confident in what kind of fertilizer to get, there are fertilizers that are set, let's say bulb fertilizer. But basically, any flower fertilizer should work. What you want is you want the middle number of the identification on any bag of fertilizer has three numbers. Um, the first one is nitrogen, the second one is phosphorus, and the third one is potassium. You want that middle number to be the high number. So, like three, five, two or something like that, because that middle number is what causes um flowering. Oh, okay. So uh so be sure that you when you mix in a fertilizer, either get the bulb fertilizer because it has all of the particular nutrients in the right proportions for bulbs. Um, but you can also just look for if you have a flower fertilizer already and it has that higher phosphorus number, that middle number, that's the one you want to mix in. And then after you do that, then you just take a trowel or what's called a bulb dibber, but you don't have to have a bulb dipper. It's basically just a pointed tool, metal or wood, that comes to a point, and the metal ones will often have uh markings on them in terms of inches, so that you can see that you want to plant this bulb two inches deep. There's a little line on your bulb dipper that says two inches or four inches or six inches. So that's why a bulb dipper is kind of handy, is because you can poke the holes in your prepared soil to the depth of the bulb that you're planting.

SPEAKER_02 40:51

I'm curious because you would mention like 200 bulbs. Do you use like I've seen people on different programs using an auger with a drill?

SPEAKER_01 41:01

And actually, that's making it so fast. That's a fabulous way to do it. I do have an auger, um, and when I'm planting a new area, a big new area of bulbs, I will use the auger. And if I'm doing a big area um like that, then an auger is great because that you can't dig up, you know, who has the energy to dig up a 20-foot-long, you know, five foot wide space. Not me, that's for sure. Um, but what I just described is what you would do in the typical suburban home garden. You know, you're gonna have somewhat limited space, so you till the soil the way you normally do before you plant flowers or veggies or anything, and then plant your bulbs. But the augers are fabulous, um, particularly if you're planting daffodils or narcissists in a big area, because you put it on the end of a drill and you just go zzz. There's another tool that I use, and it's not uh automated, um, but it is specifically for digging holes for bulbs, and it's uh so so picture uh like the top of a pitchfork, right? The handle that has the handle that goes across. But then at the bottom of it, it has a cylinder, and this cylinder is about six inches tall and about three inches wide, and you it has little bars across where the cylinder is so that you can step on it and you push this cylinder right into the ground, and it takes a core of soil out. And so that is another way to plant bulbs if you are doing a somewhat bigger area and you don't want to till the you know the soil uh entirely.

SPEAKER_02 42:50

Or be on your knees.

SPEAKER_01 42:51

Or yeah, exactly. So I use I actually use that one more than I use the bulb auger. Um it just I don't know, it's you know, step, but it but if you have pretty hard soil, then the bulb auger on a drill is the way to go because stepping on hard ground, you know, is gonna do your knees in after a while. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, so so great questions. Yeah, so those are two of my favorite bulbs, the daffodils and the um the Dutch iris. Then another one of my favorites after that, my third favorite in terms of ease, would be the friegias. Now the friegias will naturalize kind of forever. I have friezas that I planted probably 20 years ago that are still coming up. And um they are a South African bulb, so they love our climate. They get uh multiple flowers per bulb. You can stick there's they're smaller bulbs so that you can stick them in between other things. So what I typically do. is I will plant, say I'm planting uh ranunculus. I'll plant the ranunculus uh and and then I'll go back and in between those I'll put a little freasia bulb. And then because the one of the reasons I do that is the freases bloom in like an arc, kind of like an orchid, right? But not as long as an orchid. So maybe like a six inch you know kind of arc. And they're not real tall. They're not real tall. But what happens is as they're blooming, they start to lean over. And so I like to have them in between other flowers because as they lean they kind of lean on those other flowers. And so if you plant say yellow freesias with orange ranunculus, I mean picture that what a what a combo right you've got this red and orange stunningly bright or they come in a beautiful lavender color and I like to plant that with the pink ranunculus. Or you can plant them in between your annuals. So if you're planting cool season annuals like Snapdragons or stock, you know great to stick those friezas in between and then in a complementary or contrasting color. So I love friezas. They come back and they're scented. They're very very lovely scent. And that scent most people don't have an issue with are you familiar with do you ever buy those or I just remembered it being kind of a peppery smell.

SPEAKER_02 45:27

It's a little it's a little tart yeah but um I think so um they're hard to find as a as a cut flower.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

As a cut flower they are they're actually uh they are I did see them in a number of nurseries this year. They seem to be a bulb that is still sold uh not loose anymore that but in the bags but they do at least sell them by color so like I bought some yellow and pink and purple ones recently that I'm going to plant for this year. So I plant more every year because uh because I'm such a flower hog I tend to accidentally dig them up you know because I'm planting when they're done blooming you know I'm planting I'm onto planting some other thing and so I end up digging them up and and I will just stuff them back in the ground where I just dug but I still buy new ones every year because I I do love them. So so those are my top the daffodils the Dutch iris and the frees are my my top easy ones for folks and then if you want to have my very favorite one but it's it's not that it's hard to grow you just have to be a little bit more careful it would be the ranunculus. The ranunculus um because they are a fleshy root uh you have to be careful that they don't get too soggy and so they get planted quite shallowly barely an inch under you know soil over the top of them and uh the advice is water them well when you plant them and then don't water them until you see a little bit of green popping out of the ground. Now that's often not possible with our automatic sprinkler systems so you know don't don't fret over it too much. But the other thing I have done with uh Ranunculus is they're super easy to start in six packs. So if you have old six packs you know wash them out fill them with potting soil and start them in six packs and then um it's pretty easy for you to you know plant them out as little baby plants rather than as bulbs so that's another strategy.

SPEAKER_02 47:36

I I did buy the tupers of if I'm saying of dahlias. Yes and which are just they're long and I think it's said to plant it on its side is that correct you can plant them on their side. And it had a little sprout on top yes and it started sprouting in the cellophane bag. Yes they do usually and I've just kind of left it there and I haven't done anything with it. So I'm wondering if it's too late now.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

It is too late because the dahlias are actually a spring planted bulb. So we don't plant those and you should not be able to find them in the nursery right now. You'll you'll find them in the nursery usually more like February March ish because they get planted in the spring.

SPEAKER_02 48:21

Yeah I did order from a company up in Washington in the spring and they said it right on time. But it was just me.

SPEAKER_01 48:28

Yeah and which got stuck in the junk drawer. You wouldn't believe how many when I clean out my gardening cabinet how many bulbs that I never planted are back there that I just have to throw away.

SPEAKER_02 48:39

It happens you know but I thought it was interesting where it said don't water it until you see it sprout.

SPEAKER_01 48:44

And and the reason is is that these um some of these fleshy root uh you know structures are prone to rotting and um so they don't want you to water them you know too much because they will they can end up rotting.

SPEAKER_02 48:59

I'll see yeah um they'll they'll rot in the joke drawer too they will yep if you ignore them they'll rot.

SPEAKER_01 49:07

Yep they will um then uh a couple others that that I personally plant every year would be the anemone coronaria decane and I love these they come in so many different colors they're great cut flowers um they are uh a tuber and they they come looking like um a dried prune the the tuber looks like a dried prune only it's hard and so you're I always like which is the top which is the bottom where do the roots come out where do the so generally I just kind of plant them on their side and that works because the roots go down and they'll figure it out but and they're weirdly shaped they can be you know have they look like deformed dried prunes is what they look like but I do love them because they are again great cut flowers and they look beautiful in the garden as well. They have like a little black center. They have a little black center yeah there's they're just I think they're super cute. And then there are I I want to mention uh because we're getting close on time it always goes by so fast um I want to mention uh some more of the South African bulbs because they do really well here and they naturalize because our climate is very similar to South Africa. Oh and one native uh there are there's a native uh blue-eyed grass which its proper name is Cicerynchium which I can hardly ever say um and blue eyed grass is native to California so if you can find those those are really fun to plant particularly like I live up against open space so it's kind of fun to plant on your wild the wild edge of your garden. So try blue-eyed grass if you can get it um it doesn't like to be overwatered and so I end up losing it because when I'm watering you know some of my other stuff I'm probably over watering it but but I I plant it every couple of years because I do like it and what's it look like it's a um it's a little it's called blue eyed grass because it's a little six petal uh the leaf looks like grass um but the flower uh is a little six petal blue flower with a uh yellow center oh so really really cute and it doesn't get tall it's only about eight to ten inches tall maybe a little taller when it's blooming so maybe a border plant yeah uh-huh towards towards the front um yeah they're just I like to put them um like I said at towards the edge of my property where stuff looks a little more wild and just you know put a bunch here and a bunch there and and just let them do their thing. But one of the South African ones is sparaxis also called Harlequin flower it comes in yellows orange rose red purple and and it'll have a main color on the outer part of the leaf and then it'll have like a a dark color brownish almost blackish and then a yellow center and um they they will naturalize and last for a number of years they're they're super cute again not not that tall about a foot a foot tall but I do want to mention them because they they naturalize um crocosmia uh these grow wild actually on my slope now um and well you know it's hard to get things to grow on the slope and they are tall they a taller they get two to maybe three feet when they're when they're blooming and they have this arching uh kind of like a gladiola but more arching rather than straight up where they bloom you know from the bottom like glads you know up and they come in um these crimson yellow orange ish colors so pretty pretty striking and then they have the strappy leaves so even when they're done blooming the strappy leaves look nice I don't plant crocus because they typically need to be um chilled um and and that's not South African it just popped up on the slides I'm looking at but another South African one is Ixia uh it gets to be a foot and a half to 20 inches tall it's a white flower um with a like a purpley center so just pretty in the garden. Watsonia um that comes in pinks and whites and lavenders and that gets tall tall like four to six feet so a fun one if you've got got space for it. Yeah so that's all the South African ones I can think of off the top of my head. Let's talk in the last couple minutes we have about care um we already talked about how to plant them. When they are done blooming if you want them to come back you need to let the foliage die back completely and it doesn't look so great. And so you're just gonna have to uh what I like to do is I like to intersperse my bulbs in between other plants that are looking good so that that foliage as it's dying is somewhat hidden. So think about that as you're planning but if you do want them to naturalize you have to kind of put up with that as they brown. And then once the leaves are completely brown they'll just pull off super easily. And then it's a good idea to put a little uh marker of some kind where those are so that you don't dig them up like I always do if you if you truly want them to naturalize you need to put a put a marker so you don't get them dug up. And then the last thing and I did mention growing bulbs in pots super fun easy to do and one last hint about that you can plant several varieties in one pot and then you'll get a succession of bloom. So plant the biggest bulbs like daffodils you know deep then plant maybe freezas you know less deep and then maybe rununculus you know at the very top and then you'll get over a couple of months probably daffodils freases and ranunculus perfect yeah so pretty pretty fun project. Yeah that's a nice little menu going yeah and great for folks who don't have a lot of space you know do it in pots. Well do I have any do you have any questions?

SPEAKER_02 55:15

I know I I kind of put a lot in there at the end but um well I certainly learned a lot after just doing it once I I think I'm ready to give it another try. So I'll have to um see what's out there and maybe order something before it gets too late so I can get it going for the fall.

SPEAKER_01 55:36

Oh and one other thing I I didn't mention that I should have is when you plant your bulbs you can plant some annuals or you can sprinkle some seeds of like alyssum uh on top of it because they are it is just bare dirt it looks like bare dirt until they grow which takes a while so you can you can put some annuals like pansies you know on top of the bulb so you have something to look at until they bloom.

SPEAKER_02 55:59

Very nice. Okay well thank you so much Tina you have been a wealth of information so you will help our gardens our spring gardens to look just beautiful thanks so much I I really enjoyed it and I hope a few people are inspired to give it a try.

SPEAKER_01 56:15

Thank you very much. Happy gardening